To some extent, this has happened. In autumn of 2021, Amazon expanded at Florida’s Lakeland Linder
International, California’s Riverside March Air Reserve Base, and Ohio’s Wilmington, none of which have
any significant passenger traffic, as well as California’s Stockton Metropolitan Airport, which has little.
We also expect operations to commence this year at San Bernardino International Airport, another cargo-
oriented airport that we expect to become a focal point of Amazon’s Southern California operations.
Nearby Riverside March Air Base, another cargo airport, is a focal point for Hawaii traffic.
At the same time, Amazon’s recent expansion in Portland, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle, and its
continuing presence at busy passenger-oriented airports in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, New York, and Tampa,
suggests that it is increasingly willing to deepen its services at airports with massive passenger traffic
(Table 1). In turn, several cargo-oriented airports have seen modest reductions in flight activity since
August 2020, including Allentown, Chicago Rockford, and San Antonio Kelly.
Our results also show that Amazon is now only judiciously adding cities to its U.S. networks. Our February
2021 sample showed new regular flights only to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
(MSY), which had lacked such service in August 2020. Even so, we expect Amazon to use its new planes
to fill gaps in its North American network, which could include airport additions in the Carolinas,
Michigan, Utah, and Upstate New York, where many cities are 300+ miles from an Amazon-served airport.
FINDING 6. Amazon now has a balanced network of airports in the Northeast that places more
emphasis on Connecticut’s Hartford Bradley International and New York’s John F. Kennedy
International airports and less on Pennsylvania’s Allentown Lehigh Valley International Airport.
Amazon is also making a concerted push at Virginia’s Richmond International Airport, which
relieves pressure on Baltimore-Washington International Airport and positions the company to
better serve the Mid-Atlantic region.
Hartford Bradley has emerged
as a stellar performer, growing
from a mere two flights in May
2020 to six in August 2020 and
eight this month. Allentown
has gradually diminished,
reduced to 4.3 flights per day.
Activity at New York’s JFK
Airport has remained stable at
about 8.8 flights per day. This
triad offers a well-balanced
system that puts the enormous
population between
Philadelphia and southern
Maine within three hours of an
Amazon airport.
On the southern half of the